Dr. Julian Fleron

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Department of MathematicsWestfield State University577 Western AvenueWestfield, MA 01086

Julian Fleron is descended from a long line of wonderful teachers. He spent Pre-K - 2nd grade at Central Community School, a wonderful free school which had a profoundly positive impact on his young life. He is currently co-editing a book about alternative schools entitled Educated in Freedom.

Raised by inspiring, free-thinking parents, he was curious. While interested in many things radical - the Hegelian dialectic, the Black Panthers, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - his views regarding teaching and learning were narrow and rigid. His sister's revenge for their disproportionate success in school was to probe her brother's closeted conservativism. "How do we know the earth is round?" "They have pictures of it from the moon." "Did somebody really land on the moon? How do you know? Maybe they made it all up." It was infuriating - to him.

It took ten years for him to get the message. At Cornell University Jere Confrey introduced him to radical constructivism and forced him to critically analyze how individual students learned during clinical interviews.

He found his vocational passion in teaching, learning, and educational philosophy of his medium mathematics.

After completing a Masters Degree in Mathematics at University of Minnesota he earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics at State University of New York at Albany. He has spent his entire professional career at Westfield State College. This College is the oldest coeducational teachers college in the country and was founded by Horace Mann. He is happy to serve this "people's college" as a "people's mathematician."